These awards are held for the purpose of recognizing what is being done with the native format, above the mass of attention native gets in and of itself. Again in 2016, our finalists manage to all clear a high bar for quality, with the work itself displaying a constancy of variety and innovation that defies easy categorization and demands to be taken seriously.

As our content feeds explode with video, and reading becomes more important to the process of watching, the once neat line between video and text is becoming increasingly blurred for modern audiences. This new category was created after the Native Creatives entries closed, to reflect how innovative content creators weren’t just limiting themselves to a single medium, but were using whatever tool - video, text, slideshow, 3D graphic, VR simulation, etc. - worked for the story in any given moment. Our finalists defied initial categorization, but were too good to not be acknowledged. Honda and The USA Today’s VR IndyCar simulation is just a taste of what brands might be doing with this new format in five years. T.G.I. Friday’s teamed with Gawker for a piece of work that goes beyond an image, but isn’t quite text, and more memorable than either. Much of the work in this category brought detailed stories to life in many dimensions: The Telegraph and Sky Atlantic intricately weaved video and text together to bring the real story of the Pink Panthers to life to promote the show The Last Panthers; Verizon GO90 and Complex produced an in-depth history of house music; The Atlantic and Athena Health explored the new field of “population health”.